Introduction

Smart Guidance is an intelligent, real-time recommendation engine embedded in the MCM campaign creation and edit flow. It helps you set competitive bids and budgets by analyzing your product catalog and live auction signals, so your campaigns start with data-backed bids and budgets instead of guesses.

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Be attentive
Guidance V3 and Forecast V1 cannot coexist on the same platform. Platforms currently using Forecast V1 are not eligible for V3 until the forecast-guidance alignment ships. Contact your Moloco representative to get more details.

Key Benefits

Benefit	Description
Maximize Efficiency (ROAS)	Helps advertisers win more auctions at prices aligned with their ROAS targets
Drive Growth and Scaling	High-performing campaigns build advertiser trust, encouraging them to increase budgets and expand their promoted product catalog
Real-Time Adaptability	Unlike static recommendations, the system instantly reacts to shifting auction dynamics, seasonal demand, and competitive pressure
The Virtuous Cycle	Foster sustainable platform growth where superior ROAS leads to higher investment and increased overall revenue (GAS/GMV)

Supported Optimization Goals

Smart Guidance provides specific recommendations based on your chosen bidding strategy:

fCPC (Fixed CPC): Recommends a specific bid and daily/weekly budget range.
tROAS (Target ROAS): Recommends a target ROAS value and a supporting budget.
Max Sales: Focuses on budget recommendations to maximize volume.

How it works

Smart Guidance doesn't just give you "average" numbers. It uses a sophisticated engine to analyze your specific items and the live auction environment. Here is a breakdown of the logic that powers your recommendations:

1. Tailored for Every Stage of Your Campaign

Whether you are launching a brand-new idea or optimizing a long-running campaign, the guidance adapts:

For New Campaigns. The system analyzes the auction history of your selected items to calculate personalized starting values. Instead of guessing, you receive a data-backed starting point for your CPC, tROAS, and budget based on competitive market prices.

For Existing Campaigns (7+ days). Smart Guidance evaluates your actual performance. If your campaign is consistently leaving a budget on the table, the system may suggest a bid increase to help you win more auctions and capture more traffic. If you're regularly hitting your budget cap before the day ends, it may recommend a budget increase so your ads keep running.

2. Dynamic Budget Guardrails

We want your business to grow sustainably. Smart Guidance includes "Guardrails" that link budget suggestions to your actual sales volume (GMV). Budget recommendations are bounded by a percentage of your recent GMV, so suggestions stay proportional to your current sales volume. (See FAQ: How is the GMV Budget Cap applied?)

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Note
These guardrails are customized at the platform level to ensure that all budget advice stays within safe, healthy limits for your specific market.

3. Clear, Independent Goals

You may forget about confusing percentage increases. Unlike older systems that might repeatedly ask you to "increase by 10%," Smart Guidance calculates the optimal end-state immediately.

Old way	Smart Guidance way
Increase bid by 10%" ... then again ... "Increase by 10%."	"Set your CPC to $1.50."

This makes every recommendation independently meaningful and easy to understand.

4. Smart Timing

Smart Guidance follows two key rules:

Cooldown Periods. Once you edit your campaign setup, the system waits up to 7 days before suggesting a new one for that same setting. This gives the market time to react and room for your campaigns to stabilize.

Autopilot Coordination. If your campaign is using an automated bidding algorithm (Autopilot), Smart Guidance stays in the background. This ensures that the Autopilot and the Smart Guidance are never giving you conflicting directions.

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Note
During a "cooldown" period, the guidance panel will show an "on-hold" status. It means the system is currently monitoring your recent changes.

5. Data Sufficiency

Smart Guidance only speaks when it has enough data to be confident. It measures the traffic (Item Page Views) of your selected products:

Data Level	System Response
High Confidence (most items have data)	Full guidance is displayed normally
Limited Data (few items have data)	Guidance is shown with a *Warning* that recommendations may be less precise
Insufficient Data (no items have data)	Guidance is *Suppressed*. You will see a "Nothing here yet" message until your items gain more traffic

Limitations and requirements

To ensure the highest accuracy, please keep the following requirements and limitations in mind:

Forecast V1 and Smart Guidance are not compatible.
Product Selection Required. Guidance will not appear until at least one product (item) is selected for the campaign. The system must know what you are selling to provide a recommendation.
Sponsored Products only.
PPO is not supported.
Smart Guidance requires at least 1 month of live campaign data on the platform before it can produce reliable suggestions

Next steps

If you have any questions, visit MCM FAQ.